VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

THE SOUTH AFRICAN CHRONICLES PART 1;THE BEGINNINGIMPORTANT! All of the source material used to compilethis series was originally prepared by others. Unfortunately,not all names and references are known and it is thereforenot possible to provide individual acknowledgement and Ihereby give full credit to those whose records (private orpublic) ofgliding in South African have enabled me to sharewith fellow enthusiasts the fascinating story of gliding inSouth Africa.Thanks to the support of the current Chairman of the SoaringSociety of South Africa (Dick Bradley) I now have custody ofseveral kilograms of gliding memorabilia upon which I intendbasing the "SA Chronicles". From the precise and peliecthand written records contained in journals of several clubs(Rand, Durban and The Cape), original newspaper cuttings,personal photographs.. lbrough to official publications such asAero Club News and magazines (Soaring and Wingspan) thehistory of gliding in South Africa can be traced. There are literallyhundreds of photographs including well known localpersonalities such as S.W. Vines, Andriees Brink and ofcourseworld renowned Philip Wills with dozens of others who'snames, despite their obvious contribution to SA gliding, are amystery to me.The best I can do (for now) is to try and follow a chronologicalorder and include information and articles that I hopeothers will find interesting. (If by chance there is reference toa particular event in any of the photographs that accompanythis contribution (e.g. press cutting or person) that you wouldlike more information on, PLEASE feel free to contact me(details as per membership secretary list) and I will try andaccommodate your request in a subsequent article.)The earliest record found indicates that a Goodman Household,son of an immigrant farmer from England residing in theKarkloof region of Natal was very interested in flying. By1896 he had flown a number of more or less successfulstraight glides using a primitive hang glider constmcted frombamboo and silk. The design was pubJ,ished in what was theforerunner of the 'Natal Witness' and was also apparenUyreviewed and criticised by the Bishop of Co!enso. On oneoccasion Household broke a kg after hitting a tree and had togive up 'flying' because his mother thought it was the' devil'swork! There is no record of when this partictllar flight was butit would seem to mark the end of Household"s 'flying'. (SeeVGC News No 100. Ed)Next on the scene is Mr. Vines. Sidney William Vineswas born in Hampstead Heath, London in 1889 fourteen yearsafter Goodman Household had made his astonishing flight atKarkloof. The spilit of flight was also appearing in England(Percy Pilcher), Germany (Otto Lilienthal), and in the Americaswith the Wright brothers. Mr. Vines came to South Africain 1910 as chauffeur and mechanic to the first GovernorGeneral (Lord Gladstone) where his time was apparentlytaken with 'official duties' and the maintenance of the 'StateCar'. From first accounts of his flying in South Africa it startedwith his own designed / built 'bi-plane' complete with variablecamber wing! This design used an arrangement of wires andturnbuckles that loosened or tightened the trailing edge of therib and increased or decreased its camber. In the followingextract from an unpublished (?) manuscript (Taken from therecords of the late Frank Hatfield) Vines describes his'machine' ..." I could not get an engine for it for love or. money. The money that had to be spent was far beyond mymeans, so I pulled off the wheels and skid undercarriage andconverted it into the glider. I took out the centre bay of thebottom wing and rigged up two wooden bars going fore andaft. I stood inside the wooden frame thus created resting myhands and forearms along the wood bars so that I would hangdown between them and have enough strength to swing mybody to control it There was a little bit of a field at EastfortKopjie, behind Government House and there I had sOme preliminarytrails with the glider. It seemed all right, So I went tothe top of the Kopjie and got my two assistants to help launchme by means of lines tied to the struts of ,the machine. I wentoff the top ov·er an 80ft drop. launched and in flight at :Iast! Ishall never forget tlhat first sensation. I had no feeling offalling at all. I just saw the rocks of the hillside rushing up atme and I realised something was wrong. Actually I was divingmuch too fast. I had started tQ dive because I realised thatspeed alone was my support in the air. But I did not know 'howfast to go, so I stat·ted to dive. When I reahsed that I was goingto hit the ground I swung my body to level out ,the dive a bitand my grip on the bars slipped. Fortunately the !bars slippedinside my arms and not outside them, otherwise I should havedropped right out of the thing. As it was, I got a wrench undermy armpits which felt as if my arms were coming off .at theshoulders. I got a terrific fright in the meantime and with mybody jerking and swinging about while I recovered myself Imust have been doing a lot of wobbly aerobatics I didn1 knowanything about. Presently, however, I got myself sorted outand levelled off into a more orderly flight. When I came closeto the ground I started to pedal. I had worked it all out beforehand,thought about it so much that I used to dream about it atnight. I reckoned that If I started running in the air I wouldkeep my feet in spite of the speed when I landed and not goflat om my face. Presently I found myself rushing over theground. I began to run like hell wi,th. the bar behind me pressingme irresis·tibly im tbe small of the back and urging me onto my face. However, what with the grass obstructing thewings and the fact that I was extremely fit and a fair spr.inter Imanaged to keep my feet and the thing right side up. t madflown a mile and a qU3lter. It was a most shattering experiencebut it converted me to the air for good and all. I made a couplemore flights and on one of these ended flat on my face, As Iwas running along at the landing I tripped over an anthillunder the grass, went Rat ,on my face and the wings rested withtheir leading edges verticaL Then 1got the idea that if I pulledmy legs "pand allowed the machine to swish through thefour-foot longgl"aSS I would stop more comfortably. This ideaworked much better and I made many glides which ended bycrashing through the grass with: my feet bunched up and grassblades f1y,ing in every direction" ...The 'Vines' documents include reference to various alterationsmade including the refittin,g of the wheels (in 1912) andattempts at obtaining an engine. In 1914 he married MissAnnie Louise Wheeler (of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire)whom he had known for years in Pretoria. She had travelledwith him on the boat in 1910 to serve on the staff of GovernmentHouse.In the next chapter of the SA Chronicles I will continue withthe Vines story. This will take us through the 30's includinghis first soaring flight in another of his designs lasting 17minutes 12 seconds at Sterkfontein hills north of Krugersdorpalong the Mulders drift ridge and the subsequent involvementof Philip Wills.14